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WCC Tournament

Toreros vs. BYU

Friday: 8:15 p.m. at Orleans Arena, Las Vegas

On the air: ESPNU; 1360-AM

LAS VEGAS  The kid with the doo-wop name and the Hoosiers haircut helped keep USD’s season alive.

Johnny Dee was more than a handful for Pepperdine in the second round of the West Coast Conference Tournament on Thursday night as the 6-foot freshman guard from Vista scored a career-high 30 points and led the sixth-seeded Toreros to a 76-54 win over the No. 7 Waves at Orleans Arena.

USD (13-17) will face third-seeded Brigham Young at 8:15 p.m. today in the quarterfinals. The Cougars swept the Toreros in their first season in the WCC, winning the two meetings by an average of 26 points.

The Toreros took control four minutes into the game as Dee hit a three-pointer from the left corner. That ignited a 23-2 run over an 8:03 span as USD built a comfortable 27-10 lead. Dee was hitting from everywhere as he drained 4 of 5 from long distance in the first half.

For Dee, it was a nice bounceback from the two teams’ last meeting Feb. 9 at Firestone Fieldhouse. That night, Dee was just 1 of 7 from the floor and missed all three of his three-point tries, finishing with just two points. But his teammates bailed him out as Christopher Anderson and Cameron Miles had 15 and 14 points respectively in USD’s 70-57 win.

Thursday, his hot hand gave San Diego plenty of cushion to work with and it was needed. As coach Bill Grier substituted liberally in an attempt to keep fresh legs on the floor, it may have also disrupted his team’s offensive continuity. USD managed just one field goal over the final six minutes of the half, a driving layup by John Sinis with 3:07 remaining. Yet despite cooling off, the Toreros maintained their double-digit lead at intermission as Pepperdine couldn’t piece together a long enough run to climb back in it.

Twelve first-half turnovers didn’t help Pepperdine’s cause. Neither did the 2-for-7 performance at the foul line in the opening 20 minutes.

But despite its woes, Pepperdine rallied early in the second half behind consecutive treys from Corbin Moore to cut the USD lead to 33-28. Grier called an early timeout 1:58 into the half to try to get reorganized as that 17-point first-half lead was evaporating. It all but disappeared as the Waves pulled within 35-33 4:10 into the half thanks to an 11-2 spurt.

It was Dee who provided the stability offensively with 12 straight points to help USD stretch the lead back out to 12, 51-39, with 10:11 remaining minutes to go.